Nursing devices



Oct 12, 1965 w. H. GRlEslNGE-R 3,211,315

NURSING DEVICES Filed Feb. 5, 196s 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. WALTER H. GRIESINGER BUCKHCRN, BLORE, KLARQUIST & SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS Oct. 12, 1965 w. H. GRIESINGER 3,211,315

NURSING DEVICES Filed Feb. 5, 1963 -2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. WALTER H. GRIESINGER BUCKHORN, BLOFE KLARQUIST 81 SPARKMAN ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,211,315 NURSING DEVICES Walter H. Griesinger, Weatherly Bldg., Portland, Oreg. Filed Feb. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 256,439 1 Claim. (Cl. 21S-11) This invention relates to nursing devices, and more particularly to nursing devices having adjustable orifices.

In my copending application Serial No. 215,103 filed Aug. 6, 1962, there is disclosed and claimed a nursing device including a nipple provided with interiorly opening hollow lobes having a weakened hinge line therebetween and an orifice plate positioned between the nipple and the interior of the bottle to restrict the flow of the nursing liquid in the bottle from the nipple to the bottle thereby building up back pressure of the liquid in the interiors of the hollow lobes to aid in pressing the lobes against the lips and gums of the nursing infant. This nursing device works excellently to shape the lips, gums land jaw structure of the nursing infant. The nipple is constructed of resilient material, usually pure gum rubber, and has an optimum wall strength when it is new. However, this wall strength diminishes substantially after extensive use and immersion in boiling water, so that the pressure of the lobes on the nursing infant tends to lessen as the nipple wall structure becomes weaker. It would be desirable to provide an easily cleaned device adapted to compensate for weakening of the wall strength to increase the usable life of such a nipple while maintaining a uniform pressing action'of the lobes throughout the life of the nipple.

Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide a nursing device having an adjustable orifice structure to vary the back pressure of nursing liquid in the lobes of a nipple of the device.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple, adjustable orifice plate structure 'for a nursing device.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an orifice plate structure provided with two adjustable plate members having gently rounded, interlocking detent means which can be easily cleaned.

A further object of the invention is to provide and adjustable orifice structure for a nursing device including a pair of orifice plates frictionally secured in adjusted positions. l

The invention provides nursing devices each including a bottle having an open end and a nipple mounted on the bottle at the open end thereof and having opposed hinge portions between a pair of opposed lobe portions which are hollow and open to the interior of the nipple so that they are filled with milk or other nursing liquid and are supported during nursing by the milk in the interior of the nipple to press against the lips of the nursing infant. An adjustable orifice structure is positioned between the bottle and the nipple and has manually adjustable orifice means therein for restricting the flow of milk from the interior of the nipple back into the bottle during nursing. The orifice may be adjusted to provide the desired back pressure of the milk in the lobes to compensate for weakening of the wall strength of the lobes, and thus make the nipple usable even though it has been used and washed extensively, which weakens the wall strength of the lobes.

In one embodiment of the invention, the adjustable orifice structure includes a first plate having an eccentric opening therein and also provided with gently rounded keying recesses, and a second plate having an eccentric opening therein of the same size, shape and eccentricity as the opening in the first plate and having a gently rounded detent projection thereon adapted to fit into a selected one of the recesses in the first plate to key the ice plates together and hold them in adjusted positions. In an alternate embodiment of the invention the adjustable orifice structure includes a first plate having an eccentr-ic opening therein and also provided with a recess centered relative to the first plate and having an undercut periphery. A second plate having `an opening of the same shape, size and eccentricity as the opening in the first plate fits into the recess in the first plate and is frictionally held in adjusted position relative to the first plate. Preferably the openings in the first and second plates are wholly at one side of the center of the plates so that the plates can be adjusted to completely close oli the end of the bottle and also may be adjusted to provide any desired a-rea of orifice between the nipple and the bottle.

A complete understanding of the invention may be obtained from the following detailed description of nursing devices forming specific embodiments thereon, when read in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a nursing device forming one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, vertical section taken along line 2-2 of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, longitudinal section of the nursing device of FIG. 1 with an infant nursing therefrom;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2 with an adjustable orifice structure thereof in a different condition than shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary, vertical section taken along line 5 5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an elevation view of an adjustable orifice structure of a nursing device forming an alternate embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a top plan View of the device of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical section taken along line 8 8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a top plan View of an adjustable orifice structure of a nursing device forming an alternate embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 10 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical section of the device of FIG. 9.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, there is shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 a nursing device forming one embodiment of the invention and including a bottle 12 having a thread 14 on the open end thereof on which a cap 16 is adapted to he screwed to press a flange 18 of a nipple 20 against an orifice plate 22 of an adjustable orifice structure 21. The plate 22 is adjustably keyed to an orifice plate 24 and presses the plate 24 against the end of the bottle 12. This forms sealing engagements between the flange 18 and the plate 22, the plates 22 and 24 and the plate 24 and the end of the bottle 12. The faces of the plates 22 and 24 are smooth and fit sealingly together. The plates 22 are preferably composed of a relatively hard plastic material, one suitable material being polyethylene. The nipple 20 includes a teat portion 26 having opposed, flexible, elongated, arcuate, lipenveloping lobes or wings 28, which are hollow and are freely open to the interior of the nipple. The lobes are separated by aligned flexible hinge portions 30 at opposite sides of the teat portion 26. The nipple has =an end perforation 31 and a vent hole 33. As illustrated in FIG. 3, during nursing the infant tends to compress the teat portion 26 of the nipple and the lobe portions 28 envelope the lips of the infant and press against the lips to aid in forming the gums of the infant. The suction on the nipple and the compression of the nipple decreases the volume of the nipple substantially, and tends to force some of the milk back out of the nipple into the bottle. The plates 22 and 24 lrestrict the flow of milk during the nursing and cause the pressure of the milk in the.-

nipple to rise above that in the bottle during the intermittent compressing of the nipple, the flow of the milk between the interior of the nipple in the bottle being permitted only through openings 36 and 38 formed in the plates 22 and 24, respectively. The openings 36 and 38 are both of the same size, shape and eccentricity relative to the center of the nipple. When the openings are at right angles, as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the effective area of the orifice defined by the two openings 36 and 38 is about half the area of either the opening 36 or the opening 38. However, when the plates 22 and 24 are positioned so as to fully align the openings 36 and 38, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the area of the orifice is the same as that of the opening 36 or the opening 38.

The plate 22 is provided with a very shallow detent or button portion 40 adapted to tit into any of a plurality of angularly spaced, shallow recesses 42 formed in the plate 24 equidistantly from the center of the plate. The detent 40 and the recess 42 keys the plate 22 to the plate 24. The recesses 42 and the detents 40 are very shallow and `are rounded so that no corners are presented therein, and may be easily scrubbed and cleaned, the plates 22 and 24 being completely separable for cleaning and sterilizing. By adjusting the plate 22 relative to the plate 24, the size of the orifice formed therebetween may be increased from the size of the orifice shown in FIG. 4 through small increments to the size of the o rifice shown in FIG. 2. Thus, as the strength of the walls of the lobes 28 decreases, the mother may decrease the size of the orifice merely by adjusting the plate 22 relative to the plate 24 and maintain the same pressure on the lips and gums of the infant as was obtained with the nipple 20 when the nipple 20 was new and at full strength.

A nursing device forming `an alternate embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 and includes an adjustable orifice structure 50, which may be substituted for the adjustable orifice structure 21. The device 50 includes a bottom plate 52 and a top or closure plate 54. The plate 54 has a handle 55. The bottom plate 52 has an annular flange 56 adapted to abut and seal against end 57 of bottle 59 and has a top, cylindrical recess 58 centered relative thereto. The recess has a rounded, undercut, peripheral wall 60 for receiving the plate 54, which is complementary in shape to the recess 58 and is frictionally retained therein by the undercut peripheral wall 60. The bottom surface of the plate 54 fits sealingly against the bottom of the recess 58. The plate 52 has an opening 62 therein completely to one side of the center of the plate 52, and the plate 54 has an opening 64 therein of the same shape and positioned eccentrically the same distance as the opening 62. The plate 54 is rotatable to any desired position between one in which the openings 62 and 64 are fully aligned and define an orifice for the fiow of the nursing liquid of full size through any desired smaller size of the orifice defined by the openings 62 and 64 to a fully closed position, as illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8, in which no flow of the milk can occur. In this position the device 50 serves as a closure member for the bottle, with the nipple positioned under the flange 56 of the plate 52 and being pressed against the end of the bottle 66 by an annular, flanged cap 68, nipple 61 being enclosed within the bottle for such storage. The plates 52 and 54 are of resilient material such as, for example, polyethylene, and the plate 54 may be snapped out of the recess 58 for cleaning the plates. The plate 52 may be also snapped back into the recess 58.

An adjustable orifice structure 70 (FIGS. 9 and 10) forming an alternate embodiment of the invention is adapted to be used like the adjustable orifice structure 50 and includes a bottom plate 72 and a top plate 74, both being composed of a plastic material such as, for example, polyethylene. The bottom plate 72 is provided with a fiange 76 for engaging the end of a bottle (not shown) and to be sealingly engaged by the flange of the nipple (not shown), the nipple being like the nipples 20 and 61. The plate 72 has a pair of circular holes 78 positioned along the diameter of the plate 72 cornpletely on opposite sides of the center of the plate 72. The plate 74 fits sealingly into a recess 80 having an undercut peripheral wall 82, and is frictionally ,retained in any desired adjusted position in the recess 80. The plate 74 has a handle portion 84 and also is provided with circular openings 86 of the same size as, and spaced the same distance from, the center of the plate 74 as the size and corresponding spacings of the openings 78. It will be apparent that the plate 74 may be moved between the closed position thereof shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 to any selected position in which any desired overlapping of the openings 78 and 86 is effected to provide any desired size of orifice in the structure 70. Thus, the desired back pressure to maintain the desired pressing action of the lobes of the nipple is obtained. When in the closed position, as illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10, the plates 72 and 74 close ofi completely the interior of the bottle from the outside so that the bottle may be carried without leakage, the engaging faces of the plates 72 and 74 being smooth and sealingly engaging each other. The plates 72 and 74 can be easily separated and reassembled.

The above-described adjustable orifice structures serve to restrict the flow of nursing liquids from the nipples back into the bottles during nursing with selected resistances so that, as the lobes of the nipples weaken from extensive use and washing, the pressing action of the lobes is maintained uniform by the adjustment of the orifice. The orifice structures may be easily cleaned and also may serve to close off the ends of the bottles completely for storage of the nursing devices.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled. 1n the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

In a nursing device,

a nipple having a teat and a flange,

a bottle,

adjustable orifice means including a first disc member and a second closure disc member and retaining means sealingly engaging and pressing the adjustable orifice means and the fiange toward the open end of the bottle,

a first disc member being provided with a generally cylindrical recess in one face thereof and having an opening therethrough at the bottom of the recess to permit the flow of liquid therethrough, the peripheral wall of the recess being undercut, the closure disc member being complementary to the recess and fitting rotatably in the recess and having an eccentric hole therein in a position adapted to be selectively aligned with the hole in the first disc member and non-aligned therewith,

the closure disc member being adapted to be snapped into and snapped out of the recess in the first disc member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 121,686 11/27 Switzerland.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Pimazg.7 Examiner.

75 THERON E. CONDON, Examiner. 

